Bird-of-Paradise or Crane Flower
Strelitzia reginae (STRELITZIACEAE)
Planting and Growing Bird-of-Paradise
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow bird-of-paradise or crane flower in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, pods, and seeds of bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- Growing conditions for bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- When and where to plant bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- How to plant bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- How to shape, prune and control growth of bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- Landscape uses of bird-of-paradise or crane flower
- Pest and disease control for bird-of-paradise or crane flower
Growing Bird-of-Paradise
Many cultivars of fast-growing, mounding, tropical, herbaceous, evergreen shrubs, to 4 ft. (1.2 m) tall and wide, with shiny, palmlike, green, broadly lance-shaped, sometimes cut leaves, 18–36 in. (45–90 cm) long, on arching stems.
Lobster Claw, or False Bird-of-Paradise, is an unrelated rhizome-rooted species with somewhat similar character and landscape uses.
Bird-of-Paradise Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Seedpods
Unique, showy, birdlike, crested, blue, orange, white flowers, to 1 ft. (30 cm) long, on mature plants 4–6 years old, form woody, capsulelike pods containing seed. Intermittent year-round blooming.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 9–11. Tender.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist to damp, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich. 6.0–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full sun. Space 3–4 ft. (90–120 cm) apart.
Proper Care
Reduce watering in winter. Fertilize every 2 weeks. Deadhead spent flowers, yellowed foliage. Top dress in spring with a layer of fresh soil, 1 in. (25 mm) thick. Propagate by division, seed, suckers.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, beds, containers, paths in arid, formal, small-space, tropical gardens and swimming pool edgings. Good for cutting. Pest and disease resistant.